Ode to the Guitar
by Timpani
Summary: As time goes on, Charlie starts to deteriorate...
1. Chapter 1

Ode to the Guitar 

Chapter 1

Charlie sat on the beach, staring at the ocean. He was lost in thought, simply watching the waves crash and dance on the golden sand, before being sucked back into the glittering blue. His knees hugged to his chest, he was alone. He heard the crunching of footsteps on sand behind him. Warily, he turned and glanced over his shoulder. A tall man with dark skin stood before him, staring down silently.

"Echo?" Charlie questioned.

The man made no move. Slightly confused, Charlie stood.

"Echo, what's wrong, man?" he questioned again. Instead of replying, Echo simply held up his hand. Right in the center of his palm was a huge, red eye. It blinked, the crimson iris rolling around lazily.

"Claire says she needs it. Go." the priest said grimly. He then slowly backed up, until he melted into the dense forest.

--

"Heya, Freckles, why don't you toss me one of them mangos?" Sawyer grunted from his cool spot in the shade. Kate gave a snort.

"What makes you think I'd do that, huh?" but, despite her comment, she tossed one in his direction anyway, or rather,  
chucked one at him. Sawyer jerked his head out of the fruits path, narrowly avoiding a face-full of mango.

"What the hell!" he screeched, obviously annoyed. Kate giggled and continued on her way, a load of fruit cradeled in her arms. She stopped at random intervals, handing people the red fruits. As she continued down the beach, she saw a dark figure walking at a brisk pace toward her. She stopped to stare at him, realizing that it was Charlie. He had the hood of his black sweater shading his face. 'He must be after Claire again,' Kate thought, slightly paniced. She made her way over to Claire's area, finding the blonde woman gently roning to her baby.

"Claire, I think Charlie's gonna try somehing," she warned, slightly out of breath.

"What?" Claire responded, slightly confused. "I thought Locke took care o him.

"Apparently not. He's on his way over." Kate pointed down the beach, and, sure enough, Charile could be seen walking with a furious pace in their direction. The two women stood, watching, silently and motionlessl preparing themselves.  
Suddenly, he stopped, still relativly far from the camp. He turned around, and continued his brisk trudge the way he had just came.

"What on earth...?" Kate muttered to herself, confused. "Is he..._pacing_?"


	2. Chapter 2

(Please keep in mind that this is my first fanfiction. The chapters are bound to be short and pointless, as wel as full of various typos.) 

Chapter Two

"My guitar! Where is it!" Charlie screamed, tiny specks of spittle flying into an unsuspecting Jin's face. The Asain man stared at Charlie with a look somewhere between confusion, slight terror, and annoyence. He spluttered something with the resulting affect of "I don't know," leaving Charlie even more aggravated than ever. He stalked off, muttering angrily to himself. Jin shook his head, feeling slightly sorry for the derranged man.

Charlie continued pacing, with almost frantic intensity. His feet wore a trodden down path on the seashore, the sand being beat down by his continuous stomping. Something caught his eye, and he glanced up. A huge, red bird was lazily gliding across the sky, its long feathers trailing behind it. It opened its curved beak and let out a shreik.

"Get it, Charlie! Claire needs it!" it called in its screeching voice.

"But I can't," he protested, yelling at the winged creature, "I need to find my guitar, first!"

The brid let out a sad cry and flew up into the sky, getting lost within moments in the endless blue. Charlie ran a hand through his dirty blonde locks, letting out an agitated sigh. "I need to find my guitar first," he said, quietly. "Where did it go, anyway?" he qestioned the air.

--

Kate watched from the cover of a bush, onfused at Charlie's strange behavior. He had paced for about five straight hours the day before. She could hear his yells at Jin from pratically half-way across the island. She watched as he stopped pacing to stare up at the sky. Her brow furrowed, even more confused, as he yelled at the empty air.

"What in the world...?" she breathed, curious. "Could he be going crazy?" suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her, twigs snapping and leaves swishing. She spun around to find herself staring into the face of a very confused looking Sawyer.  
He peered over her shoulder to see what she had been looking at so curiously.

"Got a crush on Charlie, eh?" he teased.

"No! You don't get it, he's been acting all weird lately,"

"Well, he's Charlie. He's always weird, right?"

"Yeah, but you don't get it. A second ago, I watched him talk to the air, and yesterday, he paced for five hours straight"  
She said the last words slowly, giving them extra emphasis. Sawyer simply stood, staring off into space, quietly thinking.

"Well, that is a little weird, weirder than ususal at least..."

"Of course it is!" Kate was tired of explaining herself. She turned back to observe Charlie, to find that he was halfway down the beach, pacing yet again. She gave an exasperated sigh and turned again, heading back towards camp. Sawyer stayed rooted in his spot, watching Charlie. His curiosity was sparked when he saw him suddenly veer into the jungle. Without a second thought, he began to follow him.

--

"Find it Charlie, you can do it," a small red butterfly flitted around his blonde head, whispering exitedly into his ears.  
Around him, the trees snicked.

"He'll never find it," they murmured to each other. Charlie gritted his teeth.

"Don't listen to them, Charlie, they don't know what they're talking about," the butterfly attempted to encourage him.  
It was no use. In a fit of rage, he took a sharp rock from the jungle floorand jabbed it into the trunk of nearby tree. He grinned as warm,crimson blood gushed out from the crack in the bark. The plant's agonized screams gave him a sort of sick pleasure thathe had never acknowledged before.  
Suddenly, he heard a twig snap. He flung around, still angry from the disbelieving whispers around him. A tall, dark shadow materialized before him, red eyes blazing.

"Charlie, what are you doing?" it asked, moving closer.

--

"Charlie, what are you doing?" Sawyer asked. After following him, he found him stabbing a tree with a rock. The rock still hung loosley in Charlie's hand, and the crazed look in his eyes wasn't making him very comfortable.

"Huh? What are you doing out here?" he repeated his question cautiously, taking a step forawrd.

"You stay back!" Charlie warned, flailing the rock in front of his face.

--

"Now there, why are you doing this?" she shadow hissed, moving forward. Its eyes glowed even fiercer, the blinding red seemed to pierce his soul. It reached out what seemed to be its hand, its fingers long tendrils of darkness. Charlie's eyes widened and he did the only thing he could think of to protect himself; he took the rock and jammed it into the creature's arm, pointed side down. The creature let out a deafening shreik, and pulled it's injured limb back. Suddenly, it swung its other arm around, landing a strong hit on the side of Charlie's head. Colors flashed in front of his eyes as the shadow continued to pummel him. As the blows were raining down, Charlie fought back, swinging his fists at the shadow, clawing at its face. An explosion of pain. Charlie stumbled back, clutching his red and rapidly swelling jaw. As the Shadow came back for another blow, he reached in his back pocket. As he withdrew his hand, he was surprised to see a gleaming sliver knife.  
_'What in the world...? Where did I get this from?'_ A confuse thought troubled his mind for a quick instant. _'Oh well,'_ he stood, waiting for the Shadow to approach. He didn't wait long, for the Shadow was right upon him, its fist pulled back,  
ready to strike. Charlie thrust forward, plunging the knife into the Shadow's chest. His hand tingled as black blood spilled over it. The Shadow shuddered and fell over, its gleaming red eyes closed.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three 

Sun walked slowly through the jungle, traveling the familiar route to her garden. She knelt down, shifting the dark soil around the roots of a tomatoe plant.

"There you go, you cozy now?" she crooned motherly, arranging the plant's leaves just so. Her thoughts were interrupted by a groan to her right. She froze, clutching the stem of one of her plants as if it could protect her from the monster hidden in the leaves. A few silent moments passed, and then another groan could be heard. Against her better judgement, Sun stood and cautiously creeped over. She took a few hesitant steps into the jungle when she caught sight of a body laying on the forest floor, a pool of crimson blood spreading around it. It groaned again, it's arms twitching slightly. Sun gasped, her eyes wide. She reconized this poor soul...

"Sawyer?" she breathed, horrified.

"That's me," he mumbled, his face pressed into the jungle floor.

"Oh my God, I'll go get help!" she assured him over her shoulder, already running toward camp. Within moments, she arrived at the beach.

"Where's Jack?" she panted.

"Over there, dude," Hurley replied, pointing toward the water area, where Jack was standing refilling his canteen. He turned when Sun walked briskly over, a paniced expression on her face. She hurridly explained what she had seen.

"Lead me to him." When they reached Sawyer's body, Jack knelt down next to him, ignoring the blood pooling around him. With a grunt, he flipped over his body, so that his face was no longer pressed into the earth. He was pale, and his breathing shallow.

"We need to get him to the hatch. Help me carry him," he said curtly. They made a make-shift stretcher out of two logs and some vines and bore him down to the hatch. They ran into Kate on the way there. Judging by her clean scent, she had just gotten out of the shower. When she saw Sawyer's limp body on the stretcher, her pretty features become contorted with anguish and grief. Without saying a word, she help Jack and Sun carry him.

--

"What happened to him?" she asked Jack, a pain in the back of her throat. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but refused to let them fall, biting her lip to prevent herself from crying.

"Well, his wound seems like it was inflicted by a sharp object. A knife, probably," the doctor said as he cleaned the wound.

"A knife? Who has a knife?" Kate exclaimed incredilously. Then pain in her throat worsened and suddenly she felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She shamefully wiped the drops from her face.

"Apparantly somebody does." He bandaged the wound carefully, winding it around Sawyer's upper torso. He glanced up at Kate.  
She was crying. "Look, maybe you should go down to the beach. Cool off a bit, you know?" he suggested. Kate nodded and stood up, walking away briskly. She hated people to see her cry. As she reached the beach, she saw a figure sitting in the sand, staring at the distant horizen. The figure was playing a guitar, and had a bloody knife next to him in the golden sand.

--

"So what was that thing, anyway?" Charlie asked, curiously. His bloodied fingers sowly twanged away at the guitas's taut strings.

"Well, it's hard to say. All I know is that it doesn't want to to find It, and there's probably more than one on the island."  
The Guitar said, its voice warm and melodious. Charlie had finally found it when he stumbled out of the jungle after he defeated the Shadow. Suddenly, he heard a voice cry out behind him!

"You! It was YOU!"

--

"You! It was YOU!" Kate shrieked, pointing at Charlie. She walked toward him, anger plastered clearly upon her face. The bloody knife made it obvious. Charlie grabbed the knife and jumped up, pointing the bloody tip at Kate.

"You stay back!" he yelled frantically, "Guitar said there was more than one of you on the island. I know see that he was right."

"Wait, what?" Kate's voice rose and octave in her confusion.

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about! You don't want me to find It! You don't want Claire to love me again."  
He waved the knife in front of him, as if her prescence alone was enough to disgust him.

"So this is about Claire? That's why you attacked Sawyer?" She stepped forward, causing Charlie to step back.

"Stay back!" he warned again, his voice quivering. Kate ignored his feverish words and lunged, grabbing at the knife. Charlie dodged and bolted, headed straight for the jungle.

--

"Charlie! Be careful!" Guitar pleaded as he was jolted around. In his hurry, Charlie had forgotten to put him somewhere safe.

"They're after me again! Them Shadows! They won't leave me alone!" he ran through the jungle, jumping over fallen logs and ducking under hanging vines. Behind him, he could hear the Shadow crashing after him. He could feel the knife's handle pressed in his palm, making his knuckels white. He might need it in case the Shadow caught up with him. Suddenly, a huge, emrald snake lept in front of him, arching its long scaly in such a way that Charlie's foot caught on it, and he lost his balance. He fell. Guitar screamed and in an effort to keep his dear friend safe,Charlie twisted his body sideways. He landed hard on his right side, his right arm absorbing the shock. Pain ripped through him and his right hand felt warm. The knife. He had landed on the knife.

The Shadow finally caught up with him, but instead of diving upon him and tearing him limb from limb, it stood stok still, as if paralyzed. Despite the pain in his side, Charlie jumped up, waving the knife with its freshcoat of crimson it its face.

"You stay away from me!" he screamed, then delveddeeper into the jungle.


End file.
